I have two topics to cover this time around – the annual benefits renewal process and the annual staff survey.
On the benefits front there is some good news and some, well, “same as before” news. The good news is that premiums for the dental plan will remain the same for the coming year, and while we are still wrestling over the rate for our medical plan, I feel safe in telling you we expect the increase to be less than 5%. Premiums for the supplemental plans – voluntary life, long and short term disability as well as the accident plan – will also remain unchanged. Our claims experience – the actual dollars paid for services delivered – is very favorable in both of the medical and dental plans and that is a primary driver of plan cost. While I could go on and on about the rapidly increasing cost of medical care I also have to tell you that the best defense is “us” – be smart consumers when you do seek care and maintain a healthy lifestyle in the meantime.
We expect to have final word on the medical plan before the end of the month for rates that go into effect at the beginning of October. The medical plan is usually the last piece to fall into place and it is also the most expensive – the agency’s share of medical premiums is about $520,000/yr. For comparison, across the whole agency – 8 sites – we spend about $150,000/yr. on utilities! If you recall we changed our plan contracts to renew October 1 each year (this does not affect calendar year deductibles and out of pocket limits). This was done to assure we get better attention and support during the renewal cycle by avoiding the mad dash at the end of the calendar year.
We had a great year of participation in the staff survey – over 150 responded which is nearly a 20% improvement from past years. Thank you again for taking the time to share your perspective. As you might expect there was a range of ratings and comments – some things make you feel good when you read them, others not so much. That’s good though – the goal here is not to pat anyone on the back but rather to better understand how staff feel about working at FCC, see if there is improvement from last year and identify opportunities to make that experience even better.
I can give you a quick peek at one bit of survey data – the satisfaction score. While it is not exactly rocket science, this is a key element of the survey for us – we look at the year to year change in in the median score. Here are the scores form the last three years:
| Summer 15 | 80 |
| Fall 13 | 80 |
| Fall 12 | 78.5 |
The process for figuring out what to do with the survey content goes like this: 1) The results are downloaded and distributed to the senior team for a preliminary look. If there are any inflammatory comments, personal remarks with a name, etc. we blank those out before sending it on to the whole leadership team to review. We did that at our quarterly meeting on July 15th. 2) We solicit input from the leadership team to prepare a summary report of themes or takeaways, and in some cases the action we plan to take as a result. 3) That summary is again shared with e leadership team for feedback and finalized. As you might imagine the takeaways can range from “thanks, I get it” to “we’re working on that” to “we gotta do something about this”. 4) Once that gets written up we will share it with all staff along with the raw survey results (minus, of course, the inflammatory stuff). Expect to see that report in the next two weeks. I’m gonna get to work on that as soon as I press “send” on this article!
If you have any questions or comments about benefits, the survey, the Cubs or anything else please look me up.